A Howard jury is expected to hear from witnesses who identified a Baltimore City man as the suspect in an armed robbery and assault at a Clarksville bank when the case goes to trial Sept. 9.
Circuit Judge Lenore Gelfman on Tuesday denied a motion by defense attorney Janette DeBoissiere, who argued Howard police were too suggestive in allowing witnessesto identify Antoine Skipwith, 31, of Luzern Avenue.
Skipwith faces 17 charges, including armed robbery and assault, for his alleged involvement in robbing Clarksville Car Wash employee Joseph Marsiglia about 5:30 p.m. Sept. 15 as he dropped off a deposit outside the Citizen?s Bank night depository in Clarksville.
Skipwith also is accused of fleeing police in a stolen Dodge Stratus and approaching 90 mph before crashing on Route 32 and bailing out of the car, according to charging documents.
Police apprehended Skipwith and a second suspect, Joseph Fields, in a residential area of Clarksville and brought Marsiglia and his co-worker Charles Kent to the scene to identify them as the suspects.
Marsiglia testified Tuesday that he positively identified the suspects.
But DeBoissiere argued the identification was unnecessary, because police had enough probable cause to arrest Skipwith and Fields.
She added that the procedure was suggestive, because the witnesses were driven past the crash scene where they saw the Dodge and could hear radio transmissions between police officers.
“The process used to bring these witnesses to identify the suspects led them to the only conclusion that these must be the suspects,” DeBoissiere said.
Gelfman said the police procedure was not overly suggestive.
She said the witnesses were reliable and had been separated in different police cars so they could not bias each other.
